Income Inequality in Missouri 2000

SA-1102-1
by
David J. Peters

Through the growth in global media,
people around the world are becoming more aware of and more vocal
about the gap between the rich and the poor. Policy makers,
researchers and academics are also increasingly recognizing the
links between inequality and other social and economic phenomena.
Contrary to popular opinion, high levels of inequality persist in
many high income countries today. Even within the United States,
there are pockets of both extreme poverty and wealth. Inequality is
often studied as part of broader analyses covering poverty, although
these concepts are distinct. Inequality is a broader concept than
poverty in that it is defined over the whole distribution, not only
the censored distribution of individuals or households below a
certain poverty line. Incomes at the top and in the middle of the
distribution may be just as important to us in perceiving and
measuring inequality as those at the bottom, and indeed some
measures of inequality are driven largely by incomes in the upper
tail. Although both of these capture the whole distribution of a
given indicator, inequality is independent of the mean of the
distribution and instead is solely concerned with the dispersion of
the distribution.

The degree of income inequality
across Missouri was measured by the Gini coefficient using 2000
Census data at the tract-level. Household income data for this
analysis was extracted from the 2000 U.S. Census Summary File 3,
which consists of 813 detailed tables of social, economic and
housing characteristics compiled from a sample of approximately 1 in
6 Missouri households that received the Census 2000 long-form
questionnaire.

Inequalitypoverty centers were defined as those areas having
inequality/Gini scores that were 1.0 or more standard deviations
above the mean and having 50% or more of all households with incomes
of $25,000 or less. This indicates a concentration of lower income
households in the area.

Poverty centers in
the Missouri Bootheel were centered around Dunklin, Mississippi
and Stoddard counties. In addition to being persistently poor,
these areas are engaged in large-scale intensive agriculture of
cash crops.

Poverty centers
in the west central area were centered around the lake recreation
counties of Benton, Hickory and St. Clair. These areas are
dependent on the amusement and recreation industry associated with
Truman Reservoir, Pomme de Terre Lake and the western fork of the
Lake of the Ozarks.

Poverty centers in
northern Missouri were concentrated in Adair County north of
Kirksville, Macon County south of Macon and south central Putnam
County surrounding Unionville.

Poverty centers in
the major metropolitan areas were located in the central city
areas of Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield; and to areas to
the west and southwest of Columbia.

Inequalitywealth centers were defined as those areas having
inequality/Gini scores that were 1.0 or more standard deviations
above the mean and having 50% or more of all households with incomes
of $100,000 or more. This indicates a concentration of higher income
households in the area.

Wealth centers in
the Kansas City metro were centered around areas of Lee's Summit
and Kansas City adjacent to Longview Lake; and in an area of
Kansas City directly east of Mission Hills, Kansas.

Wealth centers in
St. Louis metro were centered in western St. Louis County,
including sections of Wildwood, Chesterfield, Clarkson Valley,
Town and Country, Country Life Acres, Westwood, northern Frontenac,
Ladue and Warson Woods.

Equality
centers were defined as areas having inequality/Gini scores
that were 1.0 or more standard deviations below the mean. This low
inequality, or income equality, indicates that there is little
concentration of income in any one category - it is more evenly
distributed across categories.

Equality centers in
the Kansas City metropolitan area were located in the suburban
areas of Clinton, northwest Jackson, Platte and western Ray
counties.

Equality centers in
the St. Louis metropolitan area were located in suburban areas of
eastern and western Franklin, Lincoln, northern and northwestern
St. Charles and Warren counties.

Equality centers in
the smaller metropolitan areas were located in the outlying areas
of the Columbia metro in Boone County; in suburban Springfield in
northern and southeastern Greene and northern Christian counties;
and in outlying areas of the St. Joseph metro in southern Andrew
and south central Buchanan counties.

Equality centers in
central Missouri were located in Cole County around Jefferson
City, southwestern Callaway County, the northern half of Johnson
County around Warrensville, Pulaski County at Fort Leonard Wood
and Phelps County southeast of Rolla.

Equality centers in
southeastern Missouri along the Mississippi River were located in
central Ste. Genevieve County and in an area north of Cape
Girardeau.